Not long ago, most high school football coaches were occupied with finding running backs and backup free safeties during training camp. Sure, they talked about safety precautions during summer practices, but not like this year.

“After the Korey Stringer thing happened, you can’t be too careful,” said Canarsie coach Mike Camardese. “It’s scary. You do everything the right way, but you never know what’s going to happen.”

That was the attitude of coaches and players throughout the area, where camps opened Monday. And although the temperatures generally stayed in the low 80s – far below the high 90s that were seen earlier this month – there has been a much greater emphasis on player safety since the Vikings’ Stringer died of heat stroke, along with several college and high school players.

“We never talked about stuff like this before,” said Kyrell Bankhead, a lineman at Canarsie. “But we all have this year. And it’s not just when the coaches talk about it to us, we even have talked about it ourselves when we’re not here. And the coaches have definitely reminded us more about drinking more.”

That’s what happens when it seemed as if every week for a month, another player was felled because of the heat. It has clearly affected coaches, who now keep an eye on their watches religiously for water breaks and have made water bottles even more available than in the past.

“It’s the kind of thing that you always were careful with, but now you reinforce it even more,” said Ed Gardella, coach of Clinton, where a hose adjacent to the field runs throughout practice.

During the first three days of practice, players only dress in shorts and T-shirts and at the camps The Post visited, no one appeared to be struggling. State regulations regarding water breaks don’t go into effect unless the temperature is at least 85 degrees, which it rarely was during the normal morning and afternoon practice hours this week, but nothing was left to chance. Still, not everyone was completely placated.

“My mom’s a nurse and she wasn’t too fond of me playing again this year,” said Tim Kerrigan, a senior lineman at Mount St. Michael. “She doesn’t like what it takes to play football and how hard you have to push yourself. But she knows I love to play. This year, there’s definitely more water around, so you’d really have to try to make yourself sick.”

Canarsie’s Dominique Laurent faced a similar problem.

“My mom really wanted me to quit,” Laurent said. “She thought I was going to die and said it wasn’t worth it. And you get scared, too. If it happens in the pros, you never know. But we all watch out for each other now.”